First Solid Food

I REALLY wanted to wait until he was 6 months old to try solid food. At first this started happening:
At first we attributed it to him just reaching for things in general. Then he started sucking on the glasses we would drink out of. Then finally he started grabbing food out of our hands. So i pulled out the book i had been reading about what and how to feed baby Baby Super Food by Ruth Yaron. http://www.amazon.com/Super-Baby-Food-Ruth-Yaron/dp/0965260313/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229902032&sr=8-1
I would have liked to make my own rice cereal, but apparently until 6 months old he isn't ready for that. so, reluctantly at 4.5 months we tried some commercial rice cereal. He couldn't get enough of it!

Day two i pushed the envelope and made it too thick and it just wasn't happy for anyone. Two more days of cereal and we get to move on to either sweet potatoes, avocado, or bananas. hmmm.....decisions!

Bedtimes

Upon becoming a mom I discovered that I have hippie tendencies - no offense to the hippies out there at all, because i am becoming one of you. I tried to have an unmedicated birth (made it 18/21 hours), i have only breastfed Mason and hope to continue with that for a year, i prefer a baby sling instead of a baby carrier, i chose only the most important vaccines and excluded most of them, and i like to co-sleep with Mason. However, Mason and i are alike in many ways. We are not morning people, we are cranky when we wake up, and we stretch out while we sleep (and keep in mind there are often 6 of us in the bed). I know he is only 17 pounds but he stretches to take up a HUGE amount of space, and when he is next to me he wants to eat about every 2 hours. We both sleep better when he isn't in the bed. However...... it was a bit of a fight, ok a lot of a fight, to convince Mason that falling asleep in a crib is better than a bed cuddeled up to mom. (it sounds silly but i learned with dogs that what you start at a young age gets continued into adulthood where it is much harder to undo trainings aka, i decided to fight the fight now because it would only get worse when he was more mobile and had more of an opinion)

So I did what I do best, and I took to the internet to reasearch baby sleep. And i decided that i needed a routine for Mason. He needed a bedtime, a bathtime before that, and to read a book, then get fed and be put to sleep drowsy(it took three weeks of hour long bedtimes to get him ok with that). The book just got re-introduced. the first time we tried he had no attention to the book. Last night we started with the books again and he is so into it! he looks at the pictures, reaches for the pages, even turns the pages! He is a book reader!

And he now goes to sleep with little help - if you don't count the sleep sheep, twilight turtle, and rainforest music thingy. But sometimes it takes none of that.

Mason's favorist thing

Mason loves to roll over to the right. Now here in lies the problem: once you roll over you are on your tummy, which is enjoyable for a short time, but long term isn't his favorite. He can not roll back to his back once he is there. He is thus far a one way roller. Isn't this kinda his first life lessons - sometimes the action is more fun than where you end up, and it isn't always as easy to undo what has been done.

And, he rolled over to the left for the first time today too. My little baby is all growns up!

p.s. i have dogs

So.......... before the baby(and in the case of Murphy before the hubby) i was a dog lover.

Murphy (in the middle) is my perfect shelter dog from the Monterey Shelter. I went in to get a license, and walked out with him....he would hide under the car when people tried to meet him. you would not know that now, he is a perfect dog - with some minor flaws that i mostly ignore. He is probably part German Shepard, part cattle dog, and whatever else you see in him. I guess that he is 4 years old.

Then came Bentley the golden retriever. I got him when he was 6 weeks, he was born the day that i got Murphy. he is 3 and acts like he is 6 months still....to be fair he is 6 months mentally and the dumbest dog i have ever had. i love him dearly and will always have to have a golden....but he is not too smart. I think he is described best by the words oaf and goof ball.

Then came Hailey. she played flyball, and so did i for a year. i adopted her and we became the 5th home she has had. she is a border collie and crazy as all get up. she runs in circles all day, literally. i could get on my soap box and rant about people that get cute puppies without researching breeds. a dog that is bred to work 8 hours running cattle on a ranch, might not make the best back yard dog. she is 6. i love her but she gets on my last nerve. We will keep her, but some days i dream what my life would be without her crazy habits. you think i am exaggerating but i am not. she is OCD. i have had Friends cry over how sad it is - that normal neglect could turn a dog literally crazy. and of all the border collies i have met she is the mild version.

So that is my dog family. I use to be super active in dog classes, and helped train dogs at the shelter. We even bought our house where we did so i could be close to the off leash trails. They were my first kids. they sleep in our room and sometimes our bed. so yes, for those of you keeping track, that is 6 bodies in one bed or room. good thing kurt LOVES me!

He rolled over

Today we went to a cookie decorating party at our friends house (Don and Alexa)...so fun! And afterwards at home Mason rolled over to the right for the very first time all by himself. He has been doing it with some help/nudging/pushing, but this was his very first time all on his own! He is growing so so much and so quickly too!

A day in San Francisco

So because it is Christmas, and we live so close to the city we decided to go see the tress and lights and decorated windows. We also wanted a few more photos for our Christmas card. Yes, we just finished it today - so you will be getting yours a little after Christmas - but with oh such cute photos! I have to say, Mason going 3-4 hours between feedings makes my life functional. For example when we parked i fed him, and then spent probably 3 hours window shopping and having fun. and when we got back to the car i fed him again.....but he didn't ask for it. So nice to not be constantly feeding him!

We spent the day in union square. Our first stop was Macy's to see the trees and pick out an ornament. We had gotten this totally adorable and ridiculous Santa outfit for him, and i would say we got 30 comments on it. Here i am helping Mason hold his two ornaments:

In Macy*s they had a whole room of santas....so we had to add Mason to the bunch...like a where's waldo book:

Then as we continued to walk around we kept seeing photo ops.... With a huge bear with Dad,

And a nut cracker with Mom:

It is amazing how many photos are super cute with a baby - i am sure we were bugging everyone in the store who was actually shopping, as we kept stopping and parking the stroller around every cute photo appropriate object.

Then it was on to Neiman Marcus with the 1000 foot tree in the entrance. we had to go UP to get to the perfect photo spot (the rotunda - where on trips without the baby we have had LOVELY lunches before). We would be a bit passive aggressive, start taking photos of each other with Mason and then some nice passerby would offer to take a photo with all three of us.

And of course we took photos with the HUGE 80 foot tree in the center Union Square, with and without the Grinch.

We walked around and saw the windows with all of their decorations. I have to say that the windows weren't quite as grand as previous years. True, we did not go off the square proper to see gumps or some of the other normally wonderful windows. But the ones we saw were a little more quiet. Maybe it is the economy - maybe it is just my child-like remembrance of them? We did go into Tiffany's where they had a tree with tiny blue boxes. Good things did come in small packages this year!All in all it was a great day. No rain, lots of photos. I even ate my very first chestnut - verdict says: soft, mushy and not all that great all in all!

The state of my wardrobe.

So let's be brutally honest.... I gained 50 pounds with mason from start to finish. In the beginning of the pregnancy i lost weight because i was so sick. so really i gained close to 60 pounds. i don't know how it happened...i didn't eat anything but soy milk protein shakes hardly. i had lost 30 pounds by the time i got home from the hospital. i was lucky if i ate 2 meals a day while i was pregnant. but it happened none the less. More brutal honesty, at my skinniest ever i was a size 4. This happened exactly twice in my life...when i was crazy depressed after a break up and went to the gym 2 hours a day every day, and also for my wedding.

For a month after Mason was born i wore my maternity clothes. But after 4 weeks i just couldn't handle the elastic anymore - oh yes they are comfortable, but i needed to feel human again, and they were just getting TOO big. But being frugal i figured i should try on my old clothes "just to see" before i went and spent money. well here is a lesson....if you have gained 60 pounds and are in the process of loosing it...don't "just see" with your tiniest clothes first. i started with clothes i had worn on my honeymoon. i don't know what i was thinking. Kurt came in during this process and laughed at me, i couldn't get the pants up to my hips. it was funny in a sad sort of way. i was able to salvage some shirts and i think sweat pants. even the jackets and most shirts wouldn't fit over my enormous breast feeding self. So off to gap outlet to find clothes that would fit. i had no idea where to start...i think i brought in like 4 sizes to the dressing room. i knew i was not a size 4 LOL...but not much beyond that. i settled on some VERY tight size 10 pants and size LARGE tops. this was humbling. i think i got 2 pairs of pants total, and 4 t-shirts. i refused to invest in this new size.

Currently 10's didn't fit, they are too big! so i decided to weigh myself. I was back at my pre-baby weight....but my body is just not the same....i Have padding on my hips that i never had before, and the flab just seems to be everywhere. I never had a tight body - but i also never jiggled before quite like this. I am not sad about these things, they are just facts of the current state of being. So i am now in size 8 jeans - barely. it is a tight fit, and they must be air dried! Ok, and being honest - there is a bit of me hanging over the tops. but i am in them.

Today i am going through all my pre-pregnancy looking for a red turtle neck to wear to the city on Saturday. and i am finding all my cute size 4 and 6 clothes. And i am coming to the conclusion that i will probably not wear them again. I just don't have the time that it required to be a size 4....and the 6's - well....i don't have the time for those either. i know i know, it took 10 months to get this way, and it will take that long to get back to normal, and it has only been 4 months. But it isn't just the number of pounds that i am....my body truly is different than ever before. it did the task of a century in carrying and birthing a human - a think that is to be awarded. But it will be awarded in non size 6 ways. Besides, the time and effort that it would take to get to those sizes would be ruined when i have the next baby. That said i just can't bare to part with them. so we have 4 piles of sorting going on:

1. I can wear you now
2. i can't wear you and/or don't want to anyway- you are getting donated
3. Size 6 to be saved "just in case"
4. Size 4 to be saved "in case of body miracle".

you will be proud to know that i did not try on the sizes i knew would not fit -but just put them straight into their correct bin home for safe keeping - just in case.

Size update

as of 12/3 Mason was 16.6 pounds, 26 inches long.....in the 90th percentiles still!

Trial Run

SO in order to save my job after the FMLA and California bonding leave, i had to change my official status to per diem, until my return. Somewhere during my leave i had a conversation with my boss and said, if you need help let me know. Weeks later he called me on it....to help train a new manager who needed some TLC. I said sure.
The day before i was going i started feeling mad at myself for agreeing to do this. I have only a finite amount of time to be home with Mason before i must go back to work almost full time...why would i volunteer to be away during this special time? But i had agreed, and a practice run so to speak would be nice. so sunday i had to get bottles ready - defrosted out of the freezer, get the breast pump ready (yes, mason has only had breast milk so far), inform the hubby on mason's schedule - complete with instructions for the gymboree class that he was going to encounter, find clothes that i could wear to work that also fit. My current size 8 jeans weren't going to cut it, nor my pre-pregnancy clothes :(.
SO off to work i was on Monday. Leaving Mason was horrible. It isn't about not trusting my husband...i figured out what mason has needed in these past 4 months and he will be able too. It is about me not being with him. i have only ever left him before for pilates and my 6 week check up. And if i am honest, what if kurt can't figure out what the baby needs? Once at work i have to say it was a blast to be back in the work mind frame. My teaching style has changed so much - things that were once black and white (i tend to be the rule follower) seem not so important when compared to having a child whose future well being depends on me. I still know policies need to be followed, but i don't feel it in my gut like i use to. It was fun to be able to teach, and help someone - to make their life easier. it was wonderful to hear people say i looked good, as if i had never had a baby (flattery will get you places).
So after 2.5 hours at work, and 2 hours of travel time i was back home. And i was a bit hurt to know that mason didn't miss me. he had a hard time napping - but seemed to accept his dad as his caregiver as readily as me. So me going back to work will be ok on him and me. But i still don't want to. Freaking America that gives women 12 weeks off total (including pre-pregnancy time off). we are supposed to nurse our babies for a year. Countries around the world give women a year off - if not paid they at least save your job. we wonder as a civilization why our kids are failing, yet we don't value them enough to let their parents parent them. I digress. I will survive going back to work. so will mason. But it will break my heart. Not being able to be with my little baby and see every aspect of his growth, to not support his every need, to miss things is horrible! oh to be a cavewoman and be able to carry and be with my baby all the time. It just feels like as a mother i was created to feed and care for my baby and by nature of not being with him i can't do that.

I chose to have a family before we were financially free. I knew it meant i would have to go back to work. But that does not make going back any easier. It makes me sick to think about being away from him. Darn this two income society that we have created.....and the lifestyle i chose before i knew what i was choosing. i chose to buy and remodel a house, and have a lavish wedding before i met mason and knew how hard it would be to be apart from him. i figured it was the norm so i would be fine with it. I hate the norm and i am not fine with it.

Please know that i am not judging women who want to work. If that is you, i applaud you. it is important to know your strengths and what makes you and your family healthy. I don't think we all made to LOVE to stay at home.and i think that we have to be happy first before we can be good caregivers. I thought i would be someone who wanted to work, but as it turns out i am not. I just hate not having the option but having to work to survive.

Christmas time is offically here

A few days ago Kurt said to me, so are we going to go have pictures taken with Santa? It hadn't even occurred to me. But of course we had to! So this morning we showed up at the Village Mall to wait in line at 10, even though Santa didn't make it until 11. We HATE waiting in lines, and not surprisingly we weren't the first ones there. We thought that the Southern Marin Santa was bound to be better than the san rafael version...who knows?!?!

Here we are at 10am waiting in line. Mason loved playing with my furry scarf. It was actually cold enough today for him to need to wear a hat today. My little baby man bear.

Here is Mason with Santa. Because Mason is so little Santa felt ok being his non-santa self and told us he became a father at 67, 9 years ago.....hmmm. Don't worry - we have a better version for the Christmas card, still to come.

After Mason told santa what he wanted Kurt and i went over to the apple store to oogle the apple tvs.....decisions....do we ask Santa for a HD camcorder or an Apple TV? yes, there is quite a price difference. But being able to capture those moments of Mason seems priceless. And the HD, because i don't see us ever buying a non-HD tv from here on out, is probably well worth it.

Next we were off to the chirstmas tree lot. Kurt and i realized that we had never had a tree together. yes, this is our 3rd christmas together...but excuses about Dogs and being out of town etc always seemed to have gotten in the way. What started out as a search for a little first tree turned into a 6-7 foot noble fir tree. It is pretty. And putting lights on it, and picking out the perfect spot for all the ornaments....makes it seem like christmas season.

Then to complete the evening we went down to old town novato's tree lighting festival, it was advertised to start at 4:30....i didn't bother to read the schedule, which noted that santa didn't arrive until 5, and the tree wouldn't get lit until 6. so we stayed long enough to enjoy the free cider and coco, buy some baked goods to support a dance team, listen to some carols, and have Mason tucker completely out. So before santa arrived we headed home. We will plan our arrival differently next year. Having a baby makes all these Christmas time activities so much more meaningful and fun...even though he does not appreciate them yet. And i am all to aware that all this fluff is not what christmas is really about, but the festivities to support the commericalism, are so fun and make me happy!

Good things about living with the inlaws...yes there are some!

These are mason's two great grandmas above, BJ Ellis (step grandma) on the left and Jackie Ellis on the right. You can also see great uncle David on the right

Here are both sets of grandparents Carl and Bonnie Engel on the left, and Jim and Penny Slater on the Right

So....i was not the most positive about the prospect of moving in with parents, i thought it was going to be functional and horrible. I know that around the world this is how families work, and some would argue better than the western model...i however tend to be a bit independent and like my space and to do things my own way. So, in the spirit of the holidays, here are the positive aspects of living with extended family, which has actually turned out to be kind of nice:

1. Coffee in the mornings is hot and ready when i come up, with fixings close by.

2. Often on weekends if we are running late for church there is toast made for us to go.

2. If i cook dinner (since i am still home with mason i usually do) i don't have to do clean up - i get to just leave the table and get mason ready for a bath and bed

3. Sometimes dinner is made for me, and all i have to do is help with clean up!

4. The one time that kurt and i had date night, mason was able to stay with nana and stay in his own room too.....when i go back to work this will come into play again.

5. mason shifts (nana 8-11, dad 11-3, mom other times) will be much easier on mason when i go back to work.

6. In the mornings when we are trying to get ready....and really pretty much all the time, there always seems to be an extra set of arms ready to hold onto and love the little man - the time in the bouncer and swing are almost non-existent now.

7. On a selfish note, the house is bigger and so is the yard from the one we were in before....with a usable guest suite when family comes to visit.

8. My father in law Carl has an AMAZING wine collection that i am able to utilize on those teething/shot days that i need some time to unwind once the baby is in bed.

9. On the occasion that i have a baby care question, Mother in law bonnie is the baby expert!

It is really nice to have family close by! When i do go back to work, it will be the best possible situation with him being able to stay with grandma and dad - and not having to juggle his location. Not that i want to stay here until he is 3 and goes to preschool......but for the time being it is all working out well. We have quite a bit to be thankful for, that is for sure!